I want cake!
by Mika Nakane
Summary: Marui has become hysterical as he drops his before-practice cake on the tennis courts. Therefore, it's up to Jackal and Kirihara to get him another one before he completely loses his sanity.


**Finally wrote a somewhat non-depressing fanfiction ^_^ **

**Disclaimer: I do not own TeniPuri**

Marui has become hysterical as he drops his before-practice cake on the tennis courts. Therefore, it's up to Jackal and Kirihara to get him another one before he completely loses his sanity.

* * *

"Then, for the next practice match we'll have Marui and Jackal play against Niou and Yagyuu." Yukimura announced. The said players quickly grabbed their rackets and headed inside the courts. Of course, Marui also grabbed his last slice of strawberry cake, and munched on it while he made his way over. He had to keep his stamina, after all.

"Oi, Marui, I'm going to serve now so hurry and finish the cake. You can't eat and play at the same time." Jackal told him, sighing as Marui pouted at him.

"I forgot my gum, so you'll just have to be patient!", he informed through mouthfuls of the cake.

"Well, since you'll take a while, we'll have Yanagi and Kirihara play on the court next to them. To speed things up." Yukimura commanded. The two jogged to the courts, and started their game without needing a referee.

However, everything took a turn for the worse when Kirihara decided to use his Knuckle Serve after Yanagi had made him fall and go into "devil mode". Then, out of surprise when Sanada yelled a "Tarundoru!" to one of the non-regulars, he missed.

That's right. Kirihara missed his knuckle serve. And then all hell broke loose.

First the ball bounced near Marui's feet, and the tensai barely had enough time to dodge the ball that was heading at a high speed to his face. Unfortunately, though, he dropped his cake.

Suddenly, Marui entered his own "devil mode", and whipped out his racket to return the serve at twice the speed and power. His eyes practically _glowed _with fury as he eyed the slice of cake that had just fallen.

It turned out that the ball that Marui had returned had breezed past Sanada, but not without slicing the rim of his hat first. The unnatural angle that the ball had went caused it to spiral upwards, and successfully managed to push Yukimura backward with a powerful force that had resulted from the long drop of the ball after it had been hoisted into the air. Yukimura fell to the ground, slight fear in his eyes. The courts were silent for a few minutes while everyone registered what had just happened.

Suddenly, Sanada exploded. "Tarundoru! 100 laps, everyone!" he raged, before going over to Yukimura and helping the captain recover from the shock. He had just had a surgery, for goodness sake!

But Marui had other plans. He burst into tears, strangely unusual for him. Jackal rushed over to his doubles partner, asking if he was all right. At this point, Marui snapped and glared at him while pointing to the ruined cake.

Jackal seemed relieved that it wasn't anything serious. Or at least, it wasn't anything serious in his opinion. "It's ok, Marui, you already ate most of it. Let's just start the match now, ok?" Jackal said, patting his friend on the back in a comforting way.

Marui assessed the situation. Sanada seemed absolutely infuriated with them, Yukimura looked weak, and Akaya looked horrified. Great combination.

Then he decided to voice his complaints. "The cake! It's _ruined!_", he wailed. But after Sanada shot him an angry glare, he decided to try and survive without his sugar.

"I'm serving, then." Jackal informed, though Marui wasn't listening. He served regularly, and wasn't surprised to see Yagyuu return it with ease. The ball was clearly headed in Marui's direction, and he would have been able to hit a strong forehand, and maybe even perform his special move, "Tightrope Walking". Jackal waited expectantly for Marui to "astound them all with his genius-like moves". However, after Marui brought his racket up to return the shot, he collapsed.

That's right. He collapsed.

"Marui! Are you alright?" Jackal gasped, concerned as he rushed to Marui's side yet again. Yagyuu and Niou also walked up to assure his well being, not wanting to face an unconscious opponent.

"I… need cake…" he rasped, his voice raising a pitch higher to show the urgency. Yukimura came over and knelt down beside him. "Are you sure? It would be impressive to see you play an entire match without eating any sweets.", Yukimura remarked.

"Impressive, but out of the question. I think I'll die if I don't eat anything in the next 10 minutes." Marui confirmed, oddly strong contrary to his previous weak request.

"Then, Jackal and Akaya will buy you one. It was Akaya's fault that you dropped it, anyway, and Jackal will need to supervise him. I trust that you two will be back in less than 10 minutes?" Yukimura asked, a sadistic smile on his face.

They quickly agreed, as Yukimura was truly scary when he was mad.

* * *

"So, um, which Pâtisserie?" Jackal asked Kirihara. He had been sweets shopping with Marui often enough to know every pastry store in the area.

"How about… 'Sweet Dreams'?" Kirihara replied, reading from a map that they had acquired on the bus.

"Sure, that one has Marui's favourite chocolate cake."

Kirihara looked at him curiously, before reading the menu while Jackal guided them to the store.

"One chocolate cake, please." Jackal asked in a tired voice.

The lady at the counter, sensing his fatigue, smiled and said "We have a 40% discount on that today. Would you like me to apply that to your purchase?"

Jackal gave her a weary smile, and said yes.

Kirihara "ooh"-ed and "ahh"-ed at the beautiful pastries displayed at the front of the store. "Jackal-senpai?" Kirihara started. Jackal sighed. He did not like where this was going.

"Yes, Akaya?"

"Since we're getting Marui a huge cake, can I have a slice of this "Devil's food cake"? It must be _made_ for me!" Kirihara asked, while smiling from ear to ear.

Jackal sighed yet again. These two, Marui and Akaya, were always emptying his wallet before he had a chance to. But he paid for a slice of the cake that Kirihara wanted anyway. Better to keep the kid happy.

Jackal had constantly checked his watch throughout the entire journey. At first he had thought it was unrealistic to travel to a Pâtisserie, buy a cake, and travel back in 10 minutes, but at the speed they were going, they might actually be able to make it in time. Jackal had practically _dragged _Kirihara out of the store, and rushed to the bus stop to catch the next bus back to Rikkaidai.

Luckily, the next bus arrived in 2 minutes, and Jackal found himself relaxing once they stepped onto the bus. They still had 5 minutes, and the bus ride wouldn't even take that long. They were going to make it there in time, astound Yukimura with their awesomeness, and not be given any laps to do for the next week. Jackal was in a great mood.

So, naturally he had to run into someone who would delay their journey. Of course he had to.

Kintaro Toyama stared at the two in amazement, before jumping up and down and yelling "LOOK SHIRAISHI! IT'S BALDY AND SEAWEED-HEAD!". Shiraishi rubbed his forehead in annoyance, and looked apologetically at Jackal and Kirihara. Jackal returned the greeting, with every intent of staying silent.

Kirihara, on the other hand, had other plans.

"Who did you just call 'seaweed head'?!" he glared at the red-haired first year.

"But, your hair is messy, and it's kinda green. So, seaweed!" said Kintaro, grinning wildly. Shiraishi scolded him, while Jackal patted his kouhai on the shoulder sympathetically. "I must admit, though, it _does_ kind of look like seaweed…" he admitted.

"Jackal-senpai!" Kirihara glared at the Brazilian, causing the other one to chuckle slightly and direct his attention back to the bubbly redhead in front of them.

"I wanna play a match with you! Ne, Shiraishi, we'll play doubles! And then we'll go eat ice cream, since it's so hot!" Kintaro said, tugging on the captain's sleeve. Jackal did not bother to ask what they were doing in Kanagawa, and instead tried to pull his kouhai away from the Shitenhouji regulars and slip away into the other side of the bus. Of course, he failed, and Kirihara and Kintaro had already begun to plan a heated match. _This will take a while,_ Jackal decided.

* * *

_This took more than a while,_ Jackal corrected. He and Shiraishi had been resting on the bench, waiting for the two kouhai to finish their matches for an hour now. _Marui must be suffering_, Jackal thought guiltily.

Suddenly, Shiraishi's phone rang. He immediately picked it up, and seemed genuinely surprised at who it was. "Zaizen? Oh, we had an extended practice today?"

On the other side of the line, Zaizen sighed. He quickly told Shiraishi to meet up with him at a café, and Shiraishi effectively dragged Kintaro out of the courts.

"But, Shiraishi! I wanna finish this match!" Kintaro whined.

"I know you do, Kin-chan. But Zaizen wants to meet with us urgently. We have to go."

And without another word (well, plenty of words from Kintaro), they left.

Kirihara blinked. "Where'd he go?"

Jackal rubbed his forehead and sighed, initiating the same process of dragging the younger one out as Shiraishi did.

* * *

"We've been waiting for _2 hours. _Marui has almost _died!_" Yukimura exclaimed in honest concern.

On the courts, Marui wheezed, just for good measure.

"Well, we had some distractions. But, here it is." Jackal held out a giant chocolate cake to Marui.

Marui looked up hopefully, but sighed when he saw what Jackal was holding.

"What's wrong?" Jackal asked immediately.

Marui sighed again. "Well, I really, _really _wanted strawberry cake…"

Jackal furrowed his brows in annoyance as Marui absolutely refused to eat the chocolate cake. He was, however, still lying on the ground weakly. He looked so fragile at the moment that Jackal was sure that even a pebble could break him. Yukimura turned to Jackal and looked at him expectantly. Jackal hung his head in defeat.

"Fine, I'll go buy another one…"


End file.
